The court order means more than 700 documents will be transferred to Congress that could shed light on the events leading up to the uprising, when hundreds of rioters attempted to prevent authentication of the 2020 presidential election results at the Capitol. .
Only Justice Clarence Thomas publicly stated that he would have accepted former President Donald Trump’s request to block the National Archives from being handed over to the House Select Committee. Other judges did not make their votes public.
Biden backs the release of the records to a White House committee, after determining that disclosure is in the best interest of the nation and denies claiming executive privilege.
The documents include activity logs, schedules, speech notes and three pages of handwritten notes from then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows – paperwork that could reveal activities going on inside the West Wing as Trump supporters gathered in Washington and Then abolished Capitol, obstructing the certification of the 2020 vote.
The National Archives says in court documents that Trump is seeking to keep a draft proclamation honoring two police officers under siege about alleged election fraud and efforts to end Trump’s presidency loss. and were killed in memos and other documents.
The move effectively erases the former Trump’s pending appeal in a case that focused on keeping the documents secret. Trump’s lawyers say the documents are sensitive and privileged records.
“The disagreement between a current president and his predecessor from a rival political party is both novel and highlights the importance of executive privilege and the ability of presidents and their advisers to reliably give and receive complete and clear advice, without concern that communications would be publicly released to serve a political purpose,” Trump’s lawyer, Jesse R. Binnal told the judges.
He insisted that Congress had no legitimate legislative purpose in requesting the documents. “Congress cannot rifle through confidential presidential papers of former presidents to meet political objections,” Binnal said.
But the Biden administration argued that withholding the record on the basis of executive privilege is not in the interest of the United States. Solicitor General Elizabeth Preller said that in light of the “extraordinary events” of January 6, President Joe Biden had decided that the claim of executive privilege was “not justified.”
A federal appeals court ruled against Trump, saying he “has not given this court any ground to override President Biden’s decision and has worked out settlement and accommodation between political branches on these documents.” “
The court said the events “marked the most significant attack on the Capitol since the War of 1812,” but agreed to freeze its decision until the Supreme Court took action.
The panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit wrote, “Under any trial advocated by former President Trump, the intense interest in disclosure advanced by President Biden and the January 6 committee goes far beyond their generalized concerns for executive branch privacy.” is more.” ,
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court cited a portion of that sentence. The Supreme Court said, “Since the Court of Appeals has concluded that President Trump’s claims would have failed even if he was the incumbent, his position as former president did not make a difference to the court’s decision.”
CNN Supreme Court analyst and University of Texas School of Law professor Steve Vladeck said, “Tonight’s decision is a major setback for former President Trump in his efforts to prevent the National Archives from handing over the documents to the January 6 committee. ” “While the judges did not rule on whether the Court of Appeal had correctly dismissed their trial, by holding off the handing now, the judges have allowed that decision to be the final word.”
Kavanaugh statement
Justice Brett Kavanaugh, writing alone, said he agreed with the court’s decision to dismiss Trump’s request, noting that the order was not based on Trump’s status as a former president.
But in a statement accompanying the court’s decision, the Trump nominee said he does not agree with a suggestion by the appeals court that a former president cannot invoke the privilege on documents held during his presidency.
“I respectfully disagree with the Court of Appeals on that point,” Kavanaugh said. “A former president must be able to successfully apply the president’s communications privilege to communications occurring during his presidency, even if the current president does not support a claim for the privilege,” he said.
Kavanaugh said, however, that saying a former president can invoke privilege on such communication “does not mean that the privilege is absolute or cannot be taken away.”
This story is breaking and will be updated.
CNN’s Tierney Sneed contributed to this report.
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